Salvatore Vitale

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Salvatore Vitale

Salvatore "Good Looking Sal" Vitale (born September 22, 1947 Maspeth, Queens , New York City ) is a former caterer in New York City and former underboss of the criminal Bonanno family before he became the pentito and informant of the US government.

Life

Salvatore Vitale was born to Giuseppe and Lilli Vitale. Both emigrated to the United States from a village called San Giuseppe Jato in Sicily after World War II . Three of the two daughters had already died in childbed.

As a child, Vitale met Joseph Massino , who later became the boss of the Bonanno family. Massino later fell in love with his sister Josephine Vitale and they both married in 1960. Massino and Salvatore Vitale became good friends.

Unlike Massino, who pursued the career of a professional criminal early on , Vitale finished high school, served in the US Army and was released in 1968 and worked as a social worker for drug addicts .

Legal career

He and Diana moved to Long Island , creating a distance from the Mafia life in Maspeth, Queens. Salvatore later ran a social club in Maspeth, Queens. This brought him back to his brother-in-law Joseph Massino, who ran front companies with the CasaBlanca restaurant and a catering service. Sal's son Anthony later worked for Mafia associate Robert Perrino at the New York Post before being expelled from college .

Criminal career

Vitale quit his job and asked Massino about work in the mafia business. He quickly got involved in break-ins and hijackings of trucks. In 1975 he was involved in the body removal of Paul Castellano's son-in-law Frank Amato. He was given a so-called “no show job”. At 38 he had his first heart attack , the second in 2001.

Vitale took part in the so-called Three Capos Murder in 1981 . It was about the murder of the bonanna capos Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato , Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone in order to end the power struggles within the family.

Vitale was placed under house arrest in 2001 but was allowed to do his no-show job at King Caterers in Farmingdale, Long Island as a "food consultant". He had to be home before 6:00 p.m. in the evening. He was allowed to take his wife out to dinner three times a week. Vitale later participated in the murder of four people along with Gerlando Sciascia. He has also been involved in credit usury , illegal bookmaking, extortion and illegal gambling. The burden of house arrest and the associated legal problems disrupted the already strained marriage.

Joseph Massino

Although Vitale had been made the underboss of the Bonanno family by Massino , he enjoyed little respect in the family, as he was seen as greedy for power and money and was only seen as a pupil of his brother-in-law, without whom he would never have achieved this high post.

Vitale was a successful businessman and co-owner and managing director of the successful J&S Catering Social Club and the Casablanca restaurant . When Sal Vitale was finally arrested, the FBI informed him that Massino was planning his assassination. Vitale decided to break the Omertà and betray it as Pentito Massino.

informant

In January 2004, a secret recording of a conversation with Capo James Tartaglione revealed that Diana Vitale was frightened of Massino and stayed away from her husband Salvatore until the time of his arrest. In 2003 Vitale and Joseph Massino were arrested by the FBI and charged with extortion and murder. Vitale was also charged with another murder.

Vital testimony essentially concerned a series of murders commissioned by Massino and John Gotti . Vitale testified to the FBI about his and Massino's involvement in over ten murders. These included the murders of Indelicato, Trinchera, Giaccone, Dominic Napolitano , Anthony Mirra , Cesare Bonventre , Gerlando Sciascia , Gabriel Infante, Joseph Pastore, John Favara and Vito Borelli. While all of this group were professional criminals, John Favara had accidentally killed John Gotti's son in a traffic accident. This information helped convict Massino.

By 2010 Vitale had testified against 51 organized crime criminals.

On October 29, 2010, Vitale was convicted of multiple murders and then accepted into the witness protection program. In 2012 he testified against Thomas Gioeli .

literature

  • Anthony DeStefano: King of the Godfathers: “Big Joey” Massino and the Fall of the Bonanno Crime Family ( en ), 2007 paperback. Edition, Pinnacle Books, New York 2006, ISBN 978-0-7860-1893-2 .
  • Simon Crittle: The Last Godfather: The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino . Berkeley 2006, ISBN 0-425-20939-3
  • Joseph D. Pistone , Richard Woodley: Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia . Hodder & Stoughton, 1999, ISBN 0-340-66637-4 .
  • Joseph D. Pistone, Charles Brandt: Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business . Running Press, 2007, ISBN 0-7624-2707-8 .
  • Selwyn Raab: Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires . St. Martin Press, New York 2005, ISBN 0-312-30094-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Bonanno / Rastelli / Vitale Family . The Mafia in New Jersey - La Cosa Nostra - State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation 1989 Report
  2. ↑ DeStefano, pp. 41-42
  3. ↑ a b c d Raab, p. 621
  4. ↑ DeStefano, p. 43
  5. ↑ Crittle, p. 50
  6. ↑ Raab, pp. 604-605
  7. ↑ DeStefano, p. 64
  8. ↑ Betrayed by a Mafia Underboss (English) . In: New York Times , October 28, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2012. 
  9. ↑ Noah Rosenberg: Former Underboss Offers Primer on Mob Life (en) . In: The New York Times , March 20, 2012. Retrieved March 24, 2012. 
personal data
SURNAME Vitale, Salvatore
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vitale, Sal; Good Looking Sal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mobster
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City